Law aims to keep homeless from kids

Fort Lauderdale sets distances from schools and day care centers

A new law designed to keep the homeless from setting up camp near schools and day care centers was embraced by Fort Lauderdale commissioners Tuesday night.

The ordinance, which bars homeless people from coming within 1,000 feet of a school or childcare facility throughout the city, will not take effect until a final vote on March 17.

Commissioner Robert McKinzie defended the new rule as necessary to protect children who are in the “crosshairs” of a homeless population that refuses to be helped.

“As we drive through our city, we see the people,” he said. “It’s all over our city. They have taken over the sidewalks and the public swales and created this tent city. And when you offer services, they refuse over and over and over again.”

McKinzie says residents have complained about homeless people who peddle sex on the street, deal drugs in plain sight and drink until they pass out on the sidewalk.

“This is one of the tools we came up with,” McKinzie said. “This was the result of conversations and feedback from the community. To do nothing is a disgrace to our residents here in Fort Lauderdale.”

Mayor Dean Trantalis said he didn’t feel comfortable criminalizing homelessness, but he voted in favor of the new rule.

“What is our plan, other than arresting people?” he said before the vote. “We’re not really addressing the real problem.”

Under the new rule, violators could be fined up to $500 and jailed for up to 60 days.

If the officer determines the person needs medical attention or assistance and they refuse to go, they would be subject to arrest. Their personal belongings would go into storage and be destroyed if not claimed within 30 days.

Trantalis said he wants the city to store their personal belongings for 60 days to give those who wind up in jail time to claim them when they are released.

Fort Lauderdale already has a law on the books that prohibits the homeless from setting up tent cities in the downtown area. But the law, approved in 2014, has largely gone unenforced, city officials say.

denied the charges. In a statement released by Blackstone following the indictment, the company called the accusations “false and inaccurate” and accused the government of meddling in the nutritional supplement industry.

One defendant, Nevada-based Robert DiMaggio, pleaded guilty on Nov. 19.

On Monday and Tuesday, the weightlifters, who are out on bond, packed the courtroom of U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas as the judge held a marathon series of motion hearings to try and resolve a complicated set of

legal issues that have arisen in the case.

Lawyers for the bodybuilders have themselves leveled accusations of prosecutorial misconduct against the government, claiming that Assistant United States Attorneys failed to turn over key evidence in a timely fashion.

In court filings, the defense attorneys claim the evidence in question shows that at least some of the performance-enhancing substances their clients are charged with selling weren’t actually illegal.

The attorneys also have moved to suppress evidence and dismiss five of the 14 charges against their clients. In one instance, court records show defense attorneys moving to exclude from

possible future jury consideration a YouTube video of one of the defendants using a supplement and then copulating with an inflatable blow up doll in an attempt to show how well the product worked.

Accusations of prosecutorial misconduct, also known as motions to sanction, are rare in federal court.

They are even more rarely granted, and can result in the removal of the federal prosecutors handling a case and even, in some rare cases, in fines being issued.

Attorneys for the bodybuilders leveled the accusations after prosecutors allegedly withheld or took too long to produce “definitive government documents” concerning divided expert opinion on the legality or illegality of some of the designer substances their clients sold.

Federal prosecutors deny the charges of misconduct, claiming that they’ve already produced more than enough documents and further claiming that there were no divided opinions about the substances among government regulators.

It is unclear when U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas will issue a ruling on the motions. At least one more day of oral arguments is expected.

Sentences for the offenses named in the indictment range from three years to 15 years for the various counts including conspiracy, according to the Department of Justice.